WATERVILLE, Maine — After months of crafting and revising a rental registration ordinance, Waterville officials and landlords who packed a City Council meeting Tuesday couldn’t find a compromise.
The proposal was discussed in October, when councilors said the rental registration was meant to aid code enforcement, police and fire departments with contact information for landlords and document the city’s rental properties.
Dan Bernier, a Waterville lawyer representing the Central Maine Apartment Owners Association, said the ordinance could drive landlords out of the city, and again argued those points Tuesday. This time, dozens of landlords attended, plus tenants, who said they worry about their privacy and consequences to their tenancies.
Maine’s cities and towns are scrambling to address a housing crisis that’s resulted in soaring rents for homes and apartments. Waterville officials see the ordinance as a way to keep properties well maintained and safe as the city also approves projects for new housing, like one that will convert the former Seton Hospital tower into 67 apartments.
But many landlords think the ordinance was poorly written and imposes hardships on them, which they argue would discourage investment in Waterville and worsen the housing crisis.
Steve Casey, president of the association, said the vast majority of its nearly 700 members oppose the ordinance because the city can obtain contact information from other sources like tax records, and the paperwork and inspections are burdensome and “warrantless inspections are unconstitutional.”
“This ordinance will slow investment in Waterville, especially with small investors when they want to buy a two- or three-family unit and can just go to the next town over,” he said. “It may increase the housing shortage and increase rental rates and [cause] homelessness to rise.”
The association provides educational sessions to landlords to teach them about keeping their properties safe and up to code, Casey said.
Waterville’s problem is a lack of housing and investment in housing, which Bernier said the city should encourage. The ordinance’s language was modeled based on a similar ordinance in Lewiston, which Bernier called the state’s poster child for lead poisoning, but noted Waterville hasn’t had those same issues.
“I have an abandoned unit across the street from me that is full of lead,” Councilor Thomas McCormick said. “Don’t say there’s not a lead problem in this town. The guy either wants to get it rented again or wants to get it sold, and it’s full of lead.”
Bernier later clarified that there may be lead poisoning in Waterville, but Maine Department of Health and Human Services data show the city hasn’t had a significant problem with children testing positive for it, he said.
Bernier asked a Lewiston landlord about the city’s rental registration, and he wasn’t aware that one existed, he said. The lawyer spoke with others and gathered that there is no enforcement of the ordinance, but the city has a portal where landlords can fill out information, he told councilors.
If the city posted a voluntary portal for landlords, most would provide their contact information without “this large regulatory regime,” Bernier said.
Chair Rebecca Green argued some of Bernier’s points. For example, he mentioned the ordinance’s annual safety checklist is problematic because even the best tenants don’t like when landlords come into their homes unnecessarily, and this requires an annual inspection.
“I think there are some misconceptions about this,” Green said. “This is not a yearly inspection. The personal residents of an apartment owner will not be inspected. If that’s the way that it’s written and we need to change it, that’s not the intention at all here.”
The form is short and simple, and Green wasn’t sure what administrative costs landlords would have, she said. If a property does have an issue with lead, surely the ordinance would help identify it and actions could be taken to remedy it, she said.
The ordinance initially had a safety checklist that would have required landlords to inspect their buildings, Green said, but it was removed after the housing committee received feedback from landlords. The checklist is now a page listing existing ordinances and requirements that asks landlords for a signature, which is simply an acknowledgment, she said.
There were many instances during the meeting when ordinance language was interpreted differently by councilors and landlords. In some instances, they agreed to remove language or revise it to make it clearer.
An annual inspection, for example, was brought up numerous times by landlords, tenants concerned about their privacy and even a councilor. But people are misinformed, Mayor Jay Coelho said, because there is no annual inspection.
“This is not about targeting particular individuals,” Green said. “It’s not about punishing landlords in general, which seems to be the impression. The goal here is to make sure there’s safe housing in Waterville.”
Following a lengthy conversation, the council unanimously voted to table the ordinance. They will revisit it at a meeting March 7.
